Rename Metric

Renames metrics flowing through a metrics pipeline. Operate on one metric at a time by its exact name, or rewrite a shared name prefix to rename many metrics at once.

Supported Telemetry

Metrics	Logs	Traces
✓

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Operation	Enum: Name, Prefix	Yes	Name	The operation to perform when renaming a metric. Name renames a single metric by its exact name. Prefix rewrites a shared name prefix across every metric that starts with it.
Old Name	String	Yes	(empty)	The name of an incoming metric to rename. Shown when Operation is Name.
New Name	String	Yes	(empty)	The new name of the metric. Shown when Operation is Name.
Old Prefix	String	Yes	(empty)	The prefix of incoming metrics to rename. Shown when Operation is Prefix.
New Prefix	String	Yes	(empty)	The new prefix of the metrics. Shown when Operation is Prefix.

Old Name / New Name apply only to the Name operation; Old Prefix / New Prefix apply only to the Prefix operation. Each processor instance performs one rename. To rename several distinct metrics, add one instance per rename.

Examples

Rename a single metric

Operation is Name. The system.network.packets metric is renamed to network.traffic. Other metrics pass through untouched.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Processor
metadata:
  name: rename-metric
spec:
  type: rename_metric
  parameters:
    - name: operation
      value: Name
    - name: old_name
      value: system.network.packets
    - name: new_name
      value: network.traffic

Rewrite a shared prefix across many metrics

Operation is Prefix. Every metric whose name starts with system. is renamed so the prefix becomes macos.. For example, system.cpu.time becomes macos.cpu.time and system.memory.usage becomes macos.memory.usage. The remainder of each metric name is preserved.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Processor
metadata:
  name: rename-metric
spec:
  type: rename_metric
  parameters:
    - name: operation
      value: Prefix
    - name: old_prefix
      value: system.
    - name: new_prefix
      value: macos.

Rename several metrics with multiple instances

A single instance renames one metric or one prefix. To rename a set of distinct metrics, chain one Rename Metric instance per rename in the pipeline:

Instance	Operation	From	To
1	Name	system.network.packets	network.traffic
2	Name	system.cpu.load_average.1m	host.cpu.load.1m
3	Name	system.filesystem.usage	host.disk.usage

Configuration Tips

• Name matches exactly. The value of Old Name must equal the incoming metric name in full. There is no wildcard or substring matching in the Name operation.
• Prefix matches the leading characters of the metric name and replaces only that leading segment. The rest of the name is left intact. Include the trailing separator (for example system. rather than system) so partial-word collisions are avoided.
• A Prefix rename affects every metric starting with the prefix. Confirm the prefix is specific enough that you do not rename metrics you intended to leave alone.

Troubleshooting

The metric was not renamed

Symptoms: the original metric name still appears downstream.

Solutions:

1. For the Name operation, confirm Old Name matches the incoming metric name exactly, including case and the full dotted path.
2. Confirm the metric actually reaches this processor. A filter or earlier processor in the pipeline may drop or rename it first.
3. Confirm the processor is on a metrics pipeline. This processor operates on metrics only.

Too many metrics were renamed

Symptoms: metrics you did not intend to change were also renamed.

Solutions:

1. The Prefix operation rewrites every metric starting with Old Prefix. Make the prefix more specific, and include the trailing separator (for example system.) so it does not match unrelated names.
2. Switch to the Name operation if you intend to rename exactly one metric.

A downstream rename or dashboard broke

Symptoms: a later processor, exporter, or backend no longer finds the metric.

Solutions:

1. Renaming changes the metric name everywhere downstream. Update any later processors, routing rules, dashboards, or alerts that reference the old name.
2. If multiple Rename Metric instances are chained, remember each operates on the output of the previous one. Order them so each instance sees the name it expects.

Standalone Processor

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Processor
metadata:
  name: rename-metric
spec:
  type: rename_metric
  parameters:
    - name: operation
      value: Name
    - name: old_name
      value: system.network.packets
    - name: new_name
      value: network.traffic

Related Resources

• Metrics Transform Processor — OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib, the upstream processor this resource configures.